American Circus installation by Federico Solmi, displayed at CONNERSMITH last year

CONNERSMITH Gallery is no stranger to renovating and refurbishing spaces in the District.

Nine years after opening as Conner Contemporary Art in Dupont Circle in 1999, gallery directors Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith purchased and remodeled a building at 1358 Florida Ave NE.

After selling the Florida Avenue space to Capital Fringe in 2014 and spending over a year considering both residential and commercial spaces throughout the city, the gallery headed back west, purchasing a home at 1013 O Street NW (map) in Logan Circle, an area that galleries have left in droves in recent years because of increasing rents.

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With the help of Four Brothers, Conner and Smith will turn the home into a gallery space, which will involve partially demolishing the original structure and reconstructing it as a three-story building.

The rear of 1013 O Street NW, pre-renovation

While art will be exhibited on all three floors, the gallery will be a third of the size of CONNERSMITH’s former 10,000 square-foot home. As such, the gallery experience will be similar to how people experience artwork in a home, and the size will be more amenable to in-depth conversations along with typical gatherings and parties.

The second floor will involve a dedicated media room to allow for displays of digital artwork and also for patrons to view works which the gallery has in storage. There will also be outdoor sculptures displayed and room for performance art. Office space will be located on the third floor along with additional art display space.

No hard date has been set for the gallery’s opening, but the owners would like to open in the fall while keeping in mind the larger schedule of the art world.